There is a particular subgenre, if you will, of film called the exploitation film.  The plots of these films differ greatly from each other, but what identifies these films as exploitation films is their lack of back story or denouement, rather, they instead focus on the torture/murder/ degradation of a victim and/or victims in great bloody detail for an extended period of time.  “I Spit on Your Grave” is definitely an exploitation film. Further, there is a subgenre of films known as the "rape and revenge" films, these are almost all exploitation films, and they focus on the degradation and rape of the victims in such great detail as to cause the audience to cheer when the victim turns around and gets revenge on her attackers and/or men in general.  “I Spit on Your Grave” is definitely a "rape and revenge" film.

This film is rather notorious.  A great number of people who have not seen the film know of its plot elements and storyline.  I have identified above that I Spit on Your Grave is both an exploitation film and a "rape and revenge" film.  The question is, is this film just an exploitative "rape and revenge" film, mere trash or exploitative garbage with little to no redeeming value, or is there something that sets this film apart from other films in these subgenres and gives it greater redeeming value?  It is my opinion that this film is more than just an exploitative piece of trash, and I will state my reasons for this opinion throughout this review.  First, I need to clear up some myths surrounding this film, prevalent myths that I hear from many people regarding the storyline and its elements.

2. Many say that this film is told from the point of view of the rapists and that it glorifies rape.  First, almost all of the shots are from Jennifer's point of view--the rape scenes often show her horrified face or her looking into the leering face of the rapist.  That's the victim's point of view.  The camera stays on Jennifer while she's limping through the swamp, while she's wandering through the woods looking terrified and lost, while she's recovering from the day of rape and torture.  There are a few scenes where the action is focusing on the men, but while this is happening, Jennifer is not there and the script shows the men as unintelligent, remorseless beings; definitely not sympathetic to them. 

Whenever Jennifer is being raped or tortured, we never lose sight of her face or of hearing her screams of agony, and this keeps our focus on the plight of the victim, not on the actions of the men.  Second, the rapes are violent, bloody, and dirty.  While the rapes are happening, the camera is on Jennifer's face, not on a close-up of her breasts or her body--and the rapes look like rape.  They're not sensualized and inter-cut with moans of pleasure like a lot of rapes in exploitation flicks I've seen.  When the rapes are done, Jennifer lies limp, falls to the ground, she can barely walk, she's covered in dirt and blood... I just don't see a glorification of what happened to her in these elements.  I know what a sensualized rape looks like on film, I've seen it before.  And this doesn't look like that.

3. Some people say that this film takes more joy in showing Jennifer's degradation and rape than in showing her eventual revenge on her rapists.  I've already stated that while the rape and torture is shown in detail, I don't think there's joy in it or glorifying techniques used at all.  Maybe the length goes overboard, we could argue about that, but the detail itself does not look glamorized.  As for not taking "joy" in showing her revenge...They spend meticulous time showing her revenge, her violence, and her degradation of the men before they die (not to give away the end...but I think we all knew that they die in this movie, and if you didn't want to know, why are you reading this review?).  The lines she gets to deliver when she dispenses violence out on the men are full of venom, set to leave the audience cheering and rooting for Jennifer.  I don't see this movie sympathizing with her rapists, showing them as cool people whose actions or ideas you'd want to emulate.  If people do take joy in the rape, I think that's their own fault, and it is in no way encouraged by the filmmakers.

Now that I'm done debunking some of these myths, let me explain why I see value in this movie.  First, Camille Keaton gives a great performance.  She's note perfect in her line delivery, and the devastation on her face after the rapes, the coldness she shows to her attackers later, and the joy she takes in the demises at the end are believable and chilling.  Eron Tabor, who plays Johnny, also gives a good performance.  He's in-charge, ordering the guys around, and his rationalizations of his behavior are delivered in such a way that he appears to believe everything he's saying.  The rape and torture scenes, while violent, had a realism that I found refreshing.  As previously stated, there is no sensual music, sexualized close-ups, no sense that this rape is in any way enjoyable for the victim.  Jennifer's limping, barely-able-to-walk state after the rapes is devastating and believable, a quality that is often lacking in rape scenes.

Rape is a horrible, degrading crime, and if it's going to be shown at all, I'd rather it be shown graphically but displayed as horrid and painful than shown briefly but giving the impression that it's not a big deal.  I applaud the realism in this movie.  I also applaud a scene showing someone planning to kill the unconscious Jennifer but relenting at the last minute and pretending he killed her... this scene may be a flimsy plot construction, but it hearkened back to the story of “Snow White” where the father can't bear to kill Snow White, so he sends her off and pretends that he has killed her.  The reference to an empathetic gesture saving a character's life reminded me of other literary elements and added another dimension to my viewing of the film.

I think that in the film we're supposed to sympathize with Jennifer and cheer when she kills her attackers, but I didn't.  The "bathtub scene" which many of you have heard of--I'm not going to spoil it anyway--is horrifying to me.  That guy's screams echo in my ears, and they're just as haunting as Jennifer's.  I'm a firm believer that two wrongs don't make a right...yeah, horrible crimes incite a desire for revenge, but that doesn't make revenge right.  Seeing the murders here, I'm almost glad to see some of the attackers die...and that makes me feel sick to my stomach.  I appreciate the way this movie makes me think.

I also think that the rape is so graphic and so horrible because in a "rape and revenge" film, the audience must believe that the revenge is justified by the crime.  If the crime isn't horrible, then the victim's actions of revenge are too extreme.  The effort is to make this rape so violent and degrading and disgusting that we can't stand the men and we want them to die.  I'm not saying this is right, I'm saying that I think that's what the filmmakers are trying to do.  The choice to agree or disagree with that motive is up to the individual viewer.

If this movie doesn't make you think, fine.  If you think the violence is too over-the-top, you're in good company.  But I find a lot to appreciate in this movie.  I bought it expecting nothing worthwhile--I only wanted to see it because of its reputation, and I expected it to be horrible and not worth watching.  When I saw it, I found more there than I'd ever imagined this film could have.  I acknowledge the things this film does wrong, but it remains one of my favorites because of what I think it does right.

The acting by the three other guys in the group besides Johnny are one-note and wooden (don't even think about making a pun).  Matthew overacts in every scene, and the other two men are barely characters at all.  It's pretty bad.  Not the worst I've seen, but pretty bad.  There are some plot holes in the movie.  If you were going to send someone to murder a person, would you send the stupidest, most unreliable person who never does anything right?  Why are there never any police in the town?  How can all this be going on with no notice of the murders?  And the fact that the whole notion of men justifying rape is based on an idea that all men are pigs with no intelligent thought or conscience who see women as less than human is belabored way too much in the film.  It serves the furthering of the plot, but it robs the story of depth it could have had with better characterization.  Such are the perils of exploitation cinema.

A flawed masterpiece, this film has one excellent performance and one good one.  It has a realism surrounding the horrid violence of rape that I find refreshing.  I repeat: If rape is portrayed, I want it to look this horrible.  I'd rather it be violent and degrading but shown to be horrible than brief but portrayed as not a big deal. I'm glad I own it and I'll keep coming back to it from time to time, if only to remind myself that there is good to be found even in the most unlikely of places.

• Lillian's note to the reader: If you can get a hold of the Millennium Edition of the DVD, the commentary by Joe Bob Briggs is priceless.